The media is in the midst of exploiting the death of a 7-year-old immigrant child. The child was detained along with her father after crossing the border illegally. She died in government custody. Based on the facts as they stand now, there is absolutely no reason at all to blame her tragic demise on Border Patrol, despite the Left’s attempts to do so.

Here are those facts:

1. She died only hours after entering government custody.

2. Reportedly, she hadn’t been given anything to eat or drink for days beforehand.

3. According to a Border Patrol form, apparently signed by her father, the girl was showing no signs of trauma or distress when she was initially detained.

4. Hours later, she started vomiting. When she stopped breathing, she was revived by medics and airlifted to a hospital in Texas.

5. She died at the hospital, despite desperate efforts to save her life.

No honest or even decent person could look at this list and find any substantial reason to point the finger at Border Patrol. Barring some unknown information coming to light, it would appear that the responsibility for her death lies on the shoulders of those who took her on this perilous trek across the Mexican desert and did not provide her the basic necessities during the journey.

Incidentally, the girl was detained along with 163 people. As mentioned above, her father was in the group. But this raises a question: were the adults in her company also dangerously dehydrated and underfed? If not, it would seem that the group did have enough food and water for the trip, they just didn’t give enough to the child. Whose fault would that be? Border Patrol? And if they didn’t have enough food and water for anybody, and indeed many others in the group were in need of medical attention, then, again, whose fault is that? Who carries the blame for bringing a child on a hazardous trek through the desert without appropriate provisions?

I feel bad for the father. I’m sure he loved his daughter and had the best intentions. But crossing the border illegally through the desert is incredibly dangerous. Our government cannot be blamed for the risks people choose to take with their own lives and the lives of their children. Indeed, the most compassionate thing we can do is make illegal immigration as difficult as possible so that fewer parents will be tempted to take such a risk. If the child had been allowed to stay home, she would be alive today. That is the tragic fact of the matter. And for the sake of the next potential casualty of illegal immigration, that fact should be made clear.